From the turmoil of madness, the head is a burden to the
body. My God, what shall I do? In the wilderness there's no wall of the beloved,
such that I would have smashed my head against it and given up my life. That
is, there's pleasure in dying by smashing the head against that door. (226)

In this verse are two points to which people have not paid
attention. One is that in the first line there's an affinity
among 'hand', 'head', and 'shoulder'. The second point is that the usual understanding
of the verse is devoid of pleasure [lu:tf se ((aarii]....
In addition, if this is the interpretation, then coming into the desert by
reason of an excess of madness becomes meaningless. The madness is so much
that the head is a burden to the shoulders. It's a matter of smashing it.
But if that's how things were, then what's the point of leaving home and coming
into the desert? In the house there are walls upon walls; he could have smashed
his head right there.... There's no need for restrictions about desert or
walls: {126,4}.

Accordingly, the emotion of the second line is not longing,
but surprise and distractedness.... As if someone would say, 'Oh Lord, in
the sea there's nothing but water! There's no dry land-- where can I build
a house?' Rather, it's that level of madness in which there's no longer any
distinction made between the expected and unexpected, the accustomed and the
unaccustomed, the logical and the illogical. (1989: 184-85) [2006: 206-07]

FWP:

Faruqi cites two points neglected by the commentators: the first involves
wordplay and verbal affinity;
the second involves the commentators' settling
for a prosaic meaning that is 'devoid of pleasure'; both kinds of neglect are
all too familiar. Faruqi's suggestion that the second line be read with 'not
longing, but surprise and distractedness' greatly increases the charm, complexity,
and liveliness of the verse.

For other verses featuring wordplay, a head filled with shor
, and the search for a wall, see {15,5} and
{166,5}.